Even the US military got rid of it, and for a good reason.1st thing that happens, is you strain to hear what the guy is saying. Most of the time they are using wrong terms, not to mention, that there is no real standard (well there is, but its not working, as there are different sets of code out there) This is Billy Bob, Electricity, telephone buy now your thinking is he billy bob is he saying BB and why is this taking so long. Now at this point the conditions start to waver or you get a knob tuning up his radio because as he hears you talking, and you miss out on the rest.OK how about this ..This is BLT55, great I got it and only took 2 seconds, short to the point. You may want to use phonetics if you missed it or conditions are so bad you cant hear him, but heck if the conditions are that bad and you cant hear them, turn off the radio.just my 2 cents

Where did you hear that the U.S. Military no longer uses a phonetic alphabet? In 1957 they adopted an international version and as far as I know still use it today. The general rule is that if you need to spell out an unfamiliar word or one with an uncommon spelling then you do it with the phonetic alphabet. The reason is that some letters sound very close to the same (D and E, for example).

One of the problems on the ham bands is that many people don't know the officially accepted phonetics and make up their own as they go along and sometimes try to be "cute".

Phonetics do help when there is heavy QRM however there are multiple standards still in use, for example an amateur in a NATO country would use ALPHA for 'A' but a ham in a former Warsaw Pact country would use ANNA. Good luck trying to get everyone singing from the same hymn sheet!

Tanakasan

P.S. Hello to Golf Eight Sugar Daddy Fox and Great Four Getting Sex Yearly if they are still around.

What I have found is that more and more people that are in mail order business are learning phonetics to ensure order accuracy!

I have encountered difficult words while ordering items within the past 3 weeks and in frustration I resorted to phonetics and the order operator copied 100%. Each one asked if I was former military. When I told them I was a ham both laughed and said, "OK"

The point being these people have learned the present day accepted standard phonetic list.

I have yet to encounter an order operator that didn't understand phonetics!

JKA: You said a mouthfull that time! I listened to a QSO one evening and one guy (maybe he was new.... I don't know) was have a terrible time using phonetics. He finally resorted to making up his own as he went along and it was all I could do to keep from puking!

I would simply have turned the dial but I had to listen to see if he was going to get slammed. He didn't...... which proves there are still courteous and understanding operators out there.

The fun for me begins when my brain gets stuck between different phontics. Having worked in public safety we used a different set of phonetics and at times my brain gets stuck between the ham standard and the public safety standard. Phonetics cuts down on mistakes. I can get information passed much quicker and precisely when using phonetics.

In fact, I was just listening to some guy calling CQ a few days ago on 40m and I couldn't copy his call, because he was not using NATO phonetics. He was using his own cutesy version, apparently. And even worse, with the static I couldn't make out his non-phonetic call either. Well, he just missed out on a QSO. I tuned back a few minutes later and he was gone, apparently nobody responded to him. I was gonna mention it and saw your thread. Folks, use standard phonetics!

Thinking back to article on what the military said.It added confusion, leading to people making mistakes.I don't think that, just getting everyone on the same page (the military was) is the answer either.I do think though, it should only be used as a last resort, when you cant hear them or not used at all.The confusion thing is an understatement, for a lot of reasons.Maybe the article is out there in cyberspace, but I'm to lazy to try to find it.tnx

Well, the FAA sure hasn't dropped it. The NATO version is standard for aviation communications (and the english language is the universal language used with ATC worldwide in aviation). When I was a police officer, we used a different phonetic alphabet (adam, baker... Drove me nuts). A quick google turned up a bunch of US Army web sites that don't seem to know that it has been abandoned. I try to be open minded about everything, but, as a former US Army officer: 1) I just can't believe it has been dropped, and 2) if is has been abandoned, then someone has lost their mind.

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